Skill testing involves presenting one or more tasks to an individual and then assessing his/her ability to perform those tasks. Skills that are frequently tested include academic skills, such as reading, writing, and mathematics, as well as mental and physical skills, such as memorization, manual dexterity, and the like. Skill tests are often administered to identify children that may be experiencing learning problems. Typically, a child experiencing problems is identified at an early age by parents or teachers. The child is then referred to a testing specialist, such as a child psychologist or special education teacher, who administers a screening test to ascertain the child's mastery of certain pre-academic/academic skills, collectively known as readiness skills. Readiness skills are generally those skills that a child should learn during their first few years in school to insure a healthy educational environment. Readiness skills include, but are not limited to, the ability to recognize and name letters, numbers and shapes, to correctly perform simple comparisons, and in some cases, to form simple words.
Conventional techniques for testing readiness skills include interactive evaluation sessions, where a testing specialist orally presents a series of tasks to the child. In performing readiness skills tests, it is important that the child is not distracted or confused by the format of the test. The purpose of the test is to ascertain the child's mastery of certain basic concepts and knowledge. Accordingly, interactive testing sessions offer significant advantage over other forms of testing, such as standardized written examinations, because they permit the examiner to adjust the examination to the examinee, thus resulting in a more accurate assessment.
Interactive evaluation sessions frequently involve the use of testing instruments for presenting information, such as chalk boards, easels, pencil-and-paper, or the like.
However, conventional testing instruments present serious limitations when attempting to assess the readiness skills of young children. For example, presenting test information on a chalkboard or easel is not only awkward, but is often confusing and intimidating for some children. Furthermore, chalkboards and easels restrict the child's ability to handle and manipulate the test instrument. Involvement of the child with test instruments is important because it permits the examiner to observe the child's reaction and response to test stimuli. Using a simple pencil-and-paper approach to present information can be time-consuming. Moreover, it may not be appropriate for younger children who may not be able to perform using a written format. Accordingly, current techniques for assessing readiness skills are time-consuming and limited when applied to young children.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved method and testing instrument for evaluating pre-academic skills in young children.